By Mohamed Adam

Youth gangs (aged between 15 and 35 years) - known as Ciyaal Weero - emerged in Mogadishu’s periphery districts in late 2021. well as pistols (and bright torches to shine in people’s eyes) and sometimes bajaj (tuk-tuks) to rob people,mostly at night.Unemployment, the use of drugs, and weak local government are seen as the main causes of the rise of communications technology, social media, and the use of out-of-court settlements are also believed to have contributed to the rise of Ciyaal Weero in the Somali capital. Although the police forces launched the ‘Samakaab’ operation against Ciyaal Weero, the government has not yet managed to reduce the threat of the youth gangs. Since its emergence, Ciyaal Weero killed people in Mogadishu including teachers and students and limited the mobility of people in the peripheral examines the factors that contributed to the rise of Ciyaal Weero, its impact on security and mobility in Mogadishu, and puts forward some policy considerations including control of the import of drugs, development of a government strategy to tackle the youth gangs, and the creation of job opportunities.

Mogadishu - Somalia: Somali Public Agenda, 2022. 4p.

By Dana Polan

“In its original run on HBO, The Sopranos mattered, and it matters still,” Dana Polan asserts early in this analysis of the hit show, in which he sets out to clarify the impact and importance of the series in both its cultural and media-industry contexts. A renowned film and TV scholar, Polan combines a close and extended reading of the show itself—and of select episodes and scenes—with broader attention to the social landscape with which it is in dialogue. For Polan, The Sopranos is a work of playful irony that complicates simplistic attempts to grasp its meanings and values. The show seductively beckons the viewer into an amoral universe, hinting at ways to make sense of its ethically complicated situations, only to challenge the viewer’s complacent grasp of things.

Durham, NC: London; Duke University Press, 2009. 230p.

By InSight Crime

President Maduro’s plan to help governors fund their states by gifting them each a gold mine soon ran into trouble. In the sprawling state of Bolívar, this led to immediate conflict. The criminal gangs that ran Venezuela’s mining heartland would never surrender. One group, in particular, has led the resistance. On November 5, 2019, threatening pamphlets appeared on the streets of El Callao, a mining town in Venezuela›s eastern state of Bolívar. The town was already on edge. A week before, a severed head was found on a road in El Callao. The pamphlets contained a message from a local gang leader, Alejandro Rafael Ochoa Sequea, alias “Toto,” to the municipal mayor, Alberto Hurtado. “You handed over your land to the government,” they read. “Resign, you have 48 hours to pack your bags because there is going to be more death, and if you don’t go, I’m coming for your head.” That night, armed men on motorbikes raced around the streets, firing off their weapons and setting off a grenade. This investigation exposes how the Maduro regime’s attempts to control Venezuela’s mining heartland in the state of Bolívar has led to criminal chaos, as guerrilla groups, heavily armed gangs and corrupt state elements battle over the country’s gold. Toto’s message and his gang’s terror campaign came shortly after President Nicolás Maduro had announced an unusual new policy: He would give each state governor a gold mine to help fund their administrations. There was one problem. Bolívar’s gold mines were controlled by brutal criminal gangs known as sindicatos (unions). And the sindicatos such as Toto’s had no intention of giving up the mines without a fight.

Washington, DC: InSight Crime, 2021. 31p.

By Joanna Callen

Jamaica’s violence problem is not new. Since the mid 1970’s the island’s per capita murder rate has steadily increased, by an average of 4.4 percent per year, from 19.8 per 100,000 in 1977, to 60 per 100,000 in 2017. In 2019, Jamaica was recorded as having the second highest murder rate in the Latin America and the Caribbean. Jamaica’ extreme violence rate is often attributed to gangs. CAPRI in partnership with the UK’s Department for International Development, and with Ms. Joanna Callen as the Lead Researcher is undertaking a study with an effort to bring focused attention to Jamaica’s gang problem, with the objective of advancing knowledge towards more effective policies and programmes for gang prevention and control. The information garnered will be used to make relevant policy recommendations, with an emphasis on providing a basis to mobilize civic support for and participation in good governance in the area of crime and violence reduction, particularly as it pertains to gangs. Gangs, organized crime, and violence, and the nexus between them, are Jamaica’s biggest citizen security challenge. With the second highest murder rate in the Latin America and Caribbean region in 2019, Jamaica’s extreme violence is often attributed to gangs. Between 2008 and 2018, gang-related violence was responsible for 56 percent of murders in Jamaica, with a high of 78 percent in 2013. Jamaica is a violent country in other ways, with extraordinarily high rates of domestic violence, including intimate partner (IPV) and gender-based violence (GBV). Jamaica’s violence problem is so

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  pernicious that the country has come to be described by academics and policy makers as having a “culture of violence.

Jamaica, WI: Caribbean Policy Research Institute, 2020. 67p.

By Diana Thorburn, Joanna Callen, Herbert Gayle and Laura Koch

Murder and extreme violence are at crisis levels in Montego Bay. The city is also the birthplace and centre of the lottery scamming industry and its offshoots, an industry that generates millions of U.S. dollars a year, and is thought to be connected to the high murder and shooting rates in St. James. This study considers the purported nexus between lottery scamming, gangs, and the high murder rate in St. James by situating St. James’ violence problem in its socio-economic context, and reviews the measures that have been taken over the past decade to tackle both problems.

Jamaica, WI: Caribbean Policy Research Institute, 2017. 72p.

By The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

This policy note provides a brief background on gangs in El Salvador and the attempts of Salvadoran authorities to negotiate with them to reduce violence in the streets. It analyzes a March 2022 gang-led homicide spree with a particular focus on the government’s response, arguing how it has harmed citizens’ lives, turning fundamental human rights into bargaining chips between licit and illicit actors. Highly punitive responses to contain gang violence have been the norm in El Salvador. In addition, for the past decade, secret negotiations between state actors and imprisoned gang leaders have been conducted, but outcomes have yielded similar or worse results. Authorities must seek alternative avenues for peace, such as promoting restorative justice and community resilience, minimizing the risk of prison riots and providing reinsertion programmes. Mediation from the international community is also needed in order to prevent the situation from spinning out of control.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2022. 14p.

By Kim Geurtjens

Whereas outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) were originally perceived as uncivilized white men grouped around a passion for motorcycles and riding, they have now become increasingly associated with organized crime. Governments have defined them as a crime policy priority, resulting in a broad-scale law enforcement offensive aimed at reducing OMCG-related crime, reducing the number of clubs and chapters, and reducing interclub tension. The way in which the general public perceives OMCGs and the attitude toward OMCGs is largely influenced by media coverage on the subject, and in recent years OMCGs have become a popular topic. As public perceptions, policymaking, and media coverage influence each other, this paper seeks to explore the contemporary representation of OMCGs and law enforcement in the Meuse Rhine Euregion by means of analyzing regional newspaper articles from 2010 up to and including 2016. The theories used for this analysis are Quinn and Koch’s criminality typology and the situational crime prevention framework. Results demonstrate that the public image of OMCGs indeed centers around (organized) crime, and that even when events not involving crime are covered, the newspaper article focuses on law enforcement working toward containing the risks of OMCG-related crime and monitoring motorcycle clubs. The public image of law enforcement measures against OMCGs therefore relies heavily on police actions and, to a lesser extent, on administrative authority reducing not only crime opportunities, but also making OMCG life in general less attractive.

Unpublished Paper, 2019. 23p.

By William Lee Dulaney

The present study is an ethnographic analysis of the communication of organizational identity in an outlaw motorcycle club. Two goals direct the present study. The first is to present a brief history of outlaw motorcycle clubs that extends current research back nearly 50 years prior to the current published record. In so doing, the study clarifies the origins of the term "outlaw" as it relates to motorcycle clubs. The second and major goal of the study is to explore how an outlaw motorcycle club establishes and communicates an organizational identity. To this end, the study offers an emic (insider) understanding from the perspective of 28 members of a Tallahassee, Florida-based chapter of an international outlaw motorcycle club. A dearth of scholarly research exists addressing outlaw motorcycle clubs. The current historical record can be seen as incomplete due to the lack of understanding of how the motorcycle first diffused as a mode of transportation and then as a locus of organization. Likewise, current cultural research is limited to etic (outsider) understandings, perhaps due to the difficulty in gaining entrée to closed or secret societies. Participant observations were conducted from May through June 2004 across the United States, with the majority of data originating from the Southeast United States in general, and the northern Florida Panhandle in particular. Historical research involved examining archives of the American Motorcyclist Association; print media dating back to 1901; life histories of long-time outlaw motorcycle club members; and organizational records of the outlaw motorcycle club

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  observed during the study. Using primarily Turnerian (1967) analysis of organizational symbols and rituals, the study examines the various acculturation processes involved in a novice becoming a member of an outlaw motorcycle club. Systems thinking frames the interpretation of how these symbols are then used by motorcycle clubs to create a system.

Tallahassee: Florida State University, 2006. 190p.

By Mark Shaw and Kim Thomas

Johannesburg’s western neighbourhoods of Westbury and Eldorado Park have long experienced serious problems derived from the presence of drug gangs and other forms of organized crime, resulting in a cyclical pattern of violence and criminality, followed by backlashes in the form of community protests and state responses. Law enforcement interventions have generally only temporarily quelled the violence before another cycle of gang activity, violence and protests flares up once again. Such continual cycles have been the pattern defining this urban area since the early 1990s. The costs of crime borne by the citizens of western Johannesburg are high and it is essential to reverse the cycle of violence and despair for these communities to thrive. This report focuses principally on gang-engendered violence in the city’s western suburbs of Westbury and Eldorado Park (and, to a lesser extent, Newclare), although other neighbouring urban areas that fall within the Johannesburg metropolitan area are also briefly analyzed. Broadly, in this urban area there have been three cycles of violence, and accompanying periods of protest and responses by community leaders and the state since the start of South Africa’s post-apartheid democratic era in 1994.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2019. 35p.

By Owen Elrifi

This paper explores the classification of gangs as criminal actors and not as political actors. I propose that urban street gangs often resemble and reflect the actions of the Weberian state in their communities and that this makes them inherently political, even if they do not make explicitly political claims against the state. To test this, I develop a theoretical framework by which to compare gang characteristics to state characteristics. Through ethnographic case studies of three Chicagoan gangs in the latter half of the 20th century, I demonstrate the utility of my framework in analysis and evaluate the similarities between gangs and states.

Chicago: University of Chicago, 2019. 70p.

By David P. Farrington and Brandon C. Welsh

After decades of rigorous study in the United States and across the Western world, a great deal is known about the early risk factors for offending. High impulsiveness, low attainment, criminal parents, parental conflict, and growing up in a deprived, high-crime neighborhood are among the most important factors. There is also a growing body of high quality scientific evidence on the effectiveness of early prevention programs designed to prevent children from embarking on a life of crime. Drawing on the latest evidence, Saving Children from a Life of Crime is the first book to assess the early causes of offending and what works best to prevent it. Preschool intellectual enrichment, child skills training, parent management training, and home visiting programs are among the most effective early prevention programs. Criminologists David Farrington and Brandon Welsh also outline a policy strategy--early prevention--that uses this current research knowledge and brings into sharper focus what America's national crime fighting priority ought to be. At a time when unacceptable crime levels in America, rising criminal justice costs, and a punitive crime policy have spurred a growing interest in the early prevention of delinquency, Farrington and Welsh here lay the groundwork for change with a comprehensive national prevention strategy to save children from a life of crime.

New York: Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006. 248p.

By Mark Shaw and Luke Skywalker

The focus of this Policy Note is specifically on the role of women and girls in gangs as an opportunity to examine whether a more “gendered” response to the phenomenon of gangsterism could have success. The case study for the research was the gangs of Cape Town, a city not only with a historical problem of gangs, but one where recent trends have showed a dramatic upswing in violence, both within and between gangs. Cape Town was chosen largely because it offered the possibility, through the network of the Global Initiative and its links to the University of Cape Town, for interviewing female gang members in a way that would have been difficult to achieve elsewhere. Cape Town now displays violence - at a level of 60 homicides per 100,000 residents for 2015/16 – that is consistent with many cities in Latin and Central America that have had longstanding challenges with gangs. In Cape Town, violence is closely linked to changes within the city’s drug economy in marginalised areas, and the introduction of a flood of firearms (ironically many from police stores) from 2010. This has exacerbated conflict between gangs and increased the ability of smaller and new gangs – who have obtained access to weapons – to both enter and expand their drug operations. The result is a fluid and violent environment, although this is generally confined to previously marginalised so-called ‘coloured’ or mixed race areas of the city. It goes without saying, however, that the human cost and suffering has been enormous, with some parts of the city having homicide rates of over 100 deaths per 100,000 people with innocent bystanders, including children, often caught in the crossfire.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational and Organized Crime, 2017. 27p.

By Ben Fisher and Anthony Petrosino

One common policy in response to concerns about school safety is to regularly employ police in school buildings. Although many schools have had some regular presence of police in their buildings, the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 led to more scrutiny of law enforcement across the board. As a result, several districts across the nation began to reconsider the use of police in schools. However, as schools began returning to full-time, in-person teaching, concerns about the safety of students and staff led several districts to reverse their decision and bring officers back to campus. Clearly, more research is needed to guide this important policy decision. To respond to this research need, the WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center, in collaboration with Professor Ben Fisher of Florida State University, conducted a systematic review of research on the effects of school policing on safety, perceptions, and academic outcomes. This brief summarizes results from this synthesis of 32 evaluations.

San Francisco, CA: WestEd,  2022. 5p.

By Thomas Hanson, Jo Ann Izu, Trevor Fronius, Anthony Petrosino

Bullying affects large numbers of U.S. students in elementary schools and is associated with short and long-term harms for both victims and bullies. Although prevention is critical, schools also need effective interventions for dealing with bullying once it occurs. Funded by the National Institute of Justice and in collaboration with the Oakland Unified School District and No Bully, WestEd conducted a two-year study of the impacts of the No Bully System (NBS) - a promising set of interventions designed to activate adult and peer support systems within the school for the targets of bullying – using a cluster randomized experimental design involving 24 elementary schools. No Bully trains staff to prevent and interrupt student harassment and bullying and ensure school-wide anti-bullying policies are in place. The core component of NBS is the Solution Team where a trained adult facilitator (Solution Coach) brings together a group of 6-8 students (Solution Team) that includes the bully or bullies, bystanders and pro-social peers, and leads the team through a series of three brief meetings to end the bullying of one of their peers by cultivating empathy and developing peer-driven solutions. The target is not included in the initial meetings though s/he is invited to attend the final session.  

Los Alamitos, CA: WestEd, 2019. 29p.

By Daniel P. Mears; Sonja E. Siennick; George B. Pesta; Andrea N. Montes; Samantha J. Brown; Nicole L. Collier

Findings and methodology are reported for a process and impact evaluation of the School Safety and Student Performance Program established in the School District of Palm Beach County (Florida) from 2015 to 2018 in an effort to improve at-risk students' behavior and academic performance, as well as to improve school-wide safety and academic performance. The project involved a collaboration between the schools, the schools' police department, the juvenile court, and several service providers. The focus was on at-risk youth, including those with some type of contact with the police or the juvenile justice system through probation or diversion programs. The intervention placed juvenile probation officers (JPOs) in schools, along with family counselors and case managers. JPOs provided school-based supervision in schools only for the youth on probation. Intervention plans were developed by a team for youth who were randomly assigned to the intervention group. Student participation was voluntary, based on assent and consent protocols. Services were matched to the needs of each participant. Evaluation analyses suggest that although the intervention was well-grounded in theory and research on adolescent behavior, no consistent beneficial or adverse effects of the intervention were found for either student or school outcomes; however, some of the analyses suggest that the intervention may have been partially effective for some of the participants. The report notes that the process evaluation identified a number of potential intervention benefits that were not directly measured in the study, such as improved advocacy for at-risk students. The process evaluation also identified a range of factors that may have contributed to some of the null intervention effects. Evaluation methodology, research implications, and implications for policy and practice are discussed. 

Tallahassee, FL: Florida State University, 2018. 92p.

By April K. Lewis; Cindy Nguyen; Carrie Freshour; Cindy Schaeffer; Eric Slade

Findings and methodology are reported for an evaluation of the impact on school safety of a new comprehensive emotional and behavioral health crisis response and prevention (EBH-CRP) intervention implemented in Baltimore County (Maryland) public schools. The EBH-CRP intervention is a comprehensive training, organization, and support protocol for school and community stakeholders intended to increase school and community competence in preventing and responding to student emotional and behavioral health crises. The primary goal of the evaluation was to measure changes in specific school safety and discipline outcomes in intervention schools compared to schools that did not participate in the intervention. Data collection and analysis for the evaluation covered two intervention school years. The impact of the EBH-CRP intervention on stakeholder knowledge and preparedness to address emotional and behavioral health across the continuum was measured by comparing pre-post change in diverse stakeholder perceived knowledge and preparedness to address emotional and behavioral health concerns in intervention schools compared to non-participating schools. Intervention school participants in specific training components also reported on their pre-post change in knowledge, preparedness, and benefits of the EBH-CRP intervention over the project period.

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  Poisson regression models predicted student suspensions, office referrals, bullying reports, and juvenile justice referrals. The evaluation encompassed participant and control middle schools and high schools. A secondary aim of the evaluation was to assess the impact of the EBH-CRP intervention on emotional and behavioral health crisis incidents and service-use outcomes. A cost-benefit analysis assessed the net benefits (dollar benefits minus costs) of the EBH-CRP intervention. Schools that implemented the EBH-CRP model had fewer student suspensions and office referrals in intervention year 2, and they were more often recognizing, assessing, and addressing emotional and behavioral crises among students.

Final Report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2019. 56p.

By Joshua R. Polanin, Dorothy Espelage, Jennifer K. Grotpeter

This is the Final Summary Overview of the methodology and findings of a study with the goal of finding, collecting, and synthesizing all available published and unpublished research reports that quantitatively analyze the longitudinal relationship between a measure of school violence and later mental health, school performance, or crime/delinquency outcomes. The study used state-of-the-art systematic review and meta-analysis methods to assess the variation in the relationships across studies through multiple-meta-regression modeling. These methods included combining effect sizes by estimating a random effects model with robust variance estimation. A total of 131 research reports from 114 independent studies were included in this meta-analysis. The findings indicate that experiences of various types of school violence are related to adverse outcomes in mental health, school performance, and crime/delinquency. This study distinguished the effects that stem from perpetrating school violence from those attributed to being a victim of school violence. The perpetration of school violence was strongly linked to numerous mental health issues, poor academic performance, and involvement in criminal/delinquent behaviors; on the other hand, being a victim of school violence was associated with only adverse mental health outcomes. Thus, strategies to prevent school violence should view student perpetrators of school violence as having mental health needs, being disconnected from school, and being resistant to school policies. Victims of school violence should be viewed as at risk for mental health disorders, including suicidal ideation.

Washington, DC:  U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2020. 30p.

By Moriah Taylor, Jeremy Bilfield, Zoe Livengood, Melissa Sickmund

This study examined factors influencing decisions that lead from a school-based incident to exclusionary discipline, an arrest, and a referral to the juvenile court. Phase 1 involved interviewing groups of key stakeholders including school administrators, district administrators, discipline coordinators, juvenile court judges and other staff, law enforcement officers, Positive Behavior Intervention Support coordinators, and child welfare agencies to understand their approaches to behavior management. For each set of interviews, researchers used the information from the structured interviews to create diagrams outlining the sequence of potential decisions involved in responding to behavior incidents. This report presents the qualitative analysis resulting from Phase 1.

Pittsburgh, PA:  National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2019. 45p. 

By Jillian J. Turanovic, Travis C. Pratt, Teresa C. Kulig and Francis T. Cullen

This is the Final Summary Overview of the methodology and findings of a meta-analysis of empirical literature on school violence to determine the key individual-, school-, and community-level factors that influence violence and related problems (victimization, offending, and aggressive behavior) within primary and secondary (K-12) schools. This study's analyses are based on 8,551 effect sizes identified from 693 studies of school violence. The authors note that this is the largest meta-analysis on this issue conducted in the field of criminal justice and is among the largest compiled in the social sciences. A total of 31 predictors of school violence were assessed at the individual, institutional, and community levels. Separate analyses were conducted in assessing the major predictors of any victimization at school, bullying victimization, violent victimization, any aggressive/delinquent behavior at school, bullying perpetration, violent offending, and bringing a weapon to school. The research reviewed indicates that the strongest and most consistent risk factors for various forms of aggression/delinquency at school are antisocial behaviors, deviant peers, victimization, peer rejection, and antisocial attitudes. The strongest predictors for victimization at school are prior victimization, low social competence, peer rejection, violent school context, and negative school climate. LGBT students and those with disabilities are at higher risk for victimization at school. School target-hardening practices, such as security cameras, metal detectors, and school resource officers or security personnel were not found to have any association with any type of violence or victimization at school. 18 tables, 37 references, and a listing of the studies reviewed.

Final report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2019. 63p.

By Véronique Irwin. Ke Wang and Alexandra Thompson

Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2021 provides the most recent national indicators on school crime and safety. The information presented in this report serves as a reference for policymakers and practitioners so that they can develop effective programs and policies aimed at violence and school crime prevention. Accurate information about the nature, extent, and scope of the problem being addressed is essential for developing effective programs and policies. This is the 24th edition of Indicators of School Crime and Safety, a joint effort of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This report provides summary statistics to inform the nation about current aspects of crime and safety in schools.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, and Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, 2022. 39p.